Austin Theatre Project Wraps Inaugural Season with BABY, 10/12-28

Is there anything more exciting, frightening and utterly transformational than impending parenthood? Baby is a wonderful and touching musical from the team of Maltby and Shire that tells the story of three couples on a university campus as they deal with the painful, rewarding and agonizingly funny consequences of this universal experience.

There are the college students, barely at the beginning of their adult lives; the thirty-something’s, having trouble conceiving but determined to try; and the middle aged parents, looking forward to seeing their last child graduate from college when a night of unexpected passion lands them back where they started.

Austin Theatre Project presents this musical theatre gem as the final show of its 2012 Inaugural Season with a cast of Austin theatre veterans.

Cast in the roles of Lizzie and Danny, the wide-eyed college students are Haley Montgomery (Guys and Dolls, I Love You Because) and Joey Banks (Bloody Bloody AndrewJackson, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee). Ryan Smith (Rent, Jesucristo Superestrella) and Jim Lindsay (Blood Brothers, Singin’ In The Rain) will be playing the roles of Pam and Nick Sarkarian, the determined-to-conceive thirty-something’s. In the roles of Alan and Arlene McNalley are Kevin Oliver (Singin’ In The Rain,Footloose) and Suzanne Orzech (I Hate Hamlet, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels), the empty-nesters who suddenly find their world turned upside-down. Rounding out the cast are Wendy Jo Cox, Cody Wayne Eastman, Matt Gauck, Rodnesha Green, and Yvonne Love.

Baby is being directed by Barbara Schuler, the founding producing director of Austin Theatre Project. ATP’s founding artistic director, David Blackburn, is serving as Music Director and pianist. Meg Steiner is the show’s choreographer with lighting and sound design by Dustin Downing and Joel Mercado-See.

Baby will be presented weekends from October 12 through October 28 at the Dougherty Arts Center (1110 Barton Springs Rd.) with performances on Friday and Saturday evenings at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday afternoons at 3:00 p.m. There will be an additional Saturday matinee on October 20 at 2:00 p.m.

Tickets are $15 to $25 and are available at www.austintheatreproject.org/tickets or by calling the 24-hour ticket hotline at 1-800-838-3006. Austin Theatre Project is a sponsored project of Austin Creative Alliance, a non-profit arts services organization.